t r u t h o u t | News in Brief

The Washington Post reports that there will be a rally featuring many self-proclaimed patriots, all of them armed, just a few miles from the Capitol and the White House. They intend to make history as the first people to take their guns to a demonstration in a national park. An Atlanta area real estate agent organized the rally because he is upset about health care reform, climate control, bank bailouts, drug laws and what he sees as President Obama's insistence on and the Democratic Congress's capitulation to a "totalitarian socialism" that tramples individual rights.

-----------------------------

The New York Times reports that Iraqi intelligence officers have located and killed Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the leader of al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said the intelligence team also killed Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, the leader of an affiliated group, the Islamic State of Iraq, in an operation that was backed by American forces.

-----------------------------

The Hill reports that Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) said that border security must be the top priority right now when it comes to immigration. McCain joined with his Arizona colleague, Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Arizona), to urge federal authorities to immediately dispatch 3,000 National Guard troops to the border in the wake of the murder of an Arizona rancher in which an illegal immigrant is suspected. But McCain, a longtime advocate of comprehensive immigration reform that includes a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, said that border security must now be first priority.

-----------------------------

Talking Points Memo reports that a suicide bomber attacked Pakistani police guarding a protest rally against power cuts in the city of Peshawar on Monday, killing 23 people, police and government officials. Islamist militants fighting the government of nuclear-armed Pakistan have launched a string of bomb attacks in Peshawar, which is the gateway to Afghanistan, killing hundreds of people over the past year.

-----------------------------

The Los Angeles Times reports that Toyota Motor Corp. agreed to pay a record $16.4-million fine for hiding safety defects related to sudden acceleration in 2.3 million vehicles, but, at the same time, denied that it broke any rules. Regulators said Toyota failed to notify the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for at least four months after learning that the accelerator pedals in some of its vehicles could stick and cause unintended acceleration. Under federal law, automakers are required to disclose defects within five business days.

-----------------------------

The Chicago Sun-Times reports that Dallas police are searching for a gunman who fired into a taxi in Dallas, killing the cabbie and wounding two passengers. Witnesses reported that the shooting followed an argument at a strip club early Monday.